News & Events
Church Planting: It’s who we are
God instructed Adam to fill the earth, promised Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through him, and Jesus commanded his followers to go into all the nations preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
As followers of Christ, these promises are our inheritance. And as I take hold of these imperatives I am convinced that they will only be fulfilled as we plant healthy local churches right across the UK and in so doing equip the saints to be salt and light in every community!
I am aware that this is a huge mission and I thank God that we are not alone in this - many other believers across the UK are hearing the same call.
God has spoken to us prophetically about fulfilling this call to start churches in stages:
Firstly, to climb the ‘hill’ of 400 churches and then to move to conquer the ‘mountain’ of a thousand churches. This is not to be our final destination as we continually explore the Himalayas of God’s purposes in the UK – only God knows what Everest we will scale in this generation!
Looking back to propel us forward
Sometimes it’s good to stop and see where you’ve come from:
Almost 20 years ago Ann and I moved to Eastbourne to serve one of only two Newfrontiers church plants in the whole of the UK! As the 20th Century drew to a close we were propelled North where one region in the North East was planting two new churches – one in York (with Steve and Ruth Hurd) and one in Teesside which we came to lead.
Now a decade later…and Jubilee Church, Teesside has grown to over 300 and has successfully planted new churches in Hartlepool and Hull. Ann and I have just moved to Manchester to help the re–launch a church, while Steve and Ruth are moving to plant a new church in Huddersfield!
In fact our North UK team is now actively working with 16 new plants – it’s amazing the acceleration God has enabled in a few years.
I honestly believe that God has placed church planting in our spiritual genes – it’s who we are and it’s what we are called to do.
Planting churches in Northern Ireland
One our most strategic churches is in Belfast; the capital of Northern Ireland. With 65 per cent of the population under 35, this is the youngest and fastest growing population in Europe – but also has some of its most deprived and divided communities.
Redeemer Central was birthed over a year ago when four people started to meet in David and Trish Capener’s living room. It now gathers up to 60 on a Sunday!
David Capener reports; ‘it has been so exciting to watch as God has gathered people from different walks of life to join together in community and on mission to this great city. We have seen God do remarkable things amongst us – people have connected again with Jesus, experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, found new purpose in life and become better disciples and disciple makers. Our church planting vision is to see multiple expressions of “Redeemer” right across the city and new churches established in each of the major cities and towns of Northern Ireland’
Part of this vision is to regularly gather with other church leaders from across the nation for worship, prayer and teaching. We have experienced a hunger for new expressions of church right across the land.
Our next major event is the church planting conference Redeem:Cities with speakers including David Stroud (ChristChurch London) and Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill, Seattle).
So why not come and join us in Belfast and experience the exciting journey that we are on!
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